Freaks Like Us
by Heart of a Slytherin
Summary: It didn't seem to be anything important, or at least, that's what Harry thought when he didn't report the thing that had attacked him and stolen his sneaker at the Lake. But during the Second Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Harry accidentally stumbles across an ancient life form that completely changes the course of his future. SLASH.


**Freaks Like Us**

**By: Heart of a Slytherin**

Harry Potter/Hellboy Crossover

Warnings: Human-to-Magical Creature Transformation, Gay Romance, Oral, Sex, Underage!Harry, Murders, Supernatural Things/Places/Beings, Sensuality, Frottage, Masturbation, Swearing, Etc.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Hellboy. Things you don't recognize come from my warped mind and belong to _me_.

-o-o-o-

By the evening before the Second Task, Harry felt as though he were trapped in a nightmare. He was fully aware that even if by some miracle he managed to find a spell he could use, he would have a hell of a job mastering it overnight. He had spent days working on the Accio spell before the First Task! How could he have let himself get this far behind? What if he had let his mind wander in class and a teacher had mentioned how to breathe underwater?

Harry sat with Ron and Hermione in the school library, going through page after page of old tomes, trying to find something, _anything_ that would work. Not for the first time he wished that there was such a thing as a Wizarding Internet, so he could find an answer without the book-hauling and dusty sneezes. He was almost certain that he was going to show up tomorrow empty handed; he could already hear the crowd mocking him as he stood there empty handed with his head lowered in shame.

These morose thoughts brought on other feelings that had cropped up lately since he had been forced into the Tri-Wizard Tournament. He had tried to ignore them the best he could, but they were like poison, spreading like a disease through his mind. Whereas before he had tried to think kindly of the situations he kept managing to get himself into, now anger was a comforting friend that seemed to always be there, helping him to think dark thoughts about the inconsistencies he had noticed in the past.

Thinking about it, how _could_ the Wizarding World really expect him to be able to compete fairly with others with almost four more years of magical schooling that he did? Unless they naively believed that he should automatically be a genius because he survived the Killing Curse as a child, where no one else had. At the very least, the higher authorities should have stepped in because he was a minor.

But then again, everyone seemed to follow the Headmaster's orders, no matter how much the Minister of Magic liked to pretend otherwise, and the elderly Wizard had deemed it an unbreakable contract, though Harry hadn't even 'signed' a proper contract. It was all hearsay, and it made his blood boil that clearly he had been set up to fail.

Suddenly angry at the unfairness of it all, Harry closed the tomb he had been skimming with a slam, sending dust particles dancing through the air, while studiously ignoring Hermione's glare and Ron's jump. "I'm going down to the lake for a little bit, guys. I need to think about this."

"But Harry! You can't honestly think you're going to find it by not doing anything! There has to be a way to do this, there just has to be!" Hermione cried crossly. She couldn't believe her friend was just going to give up after all their efforts. She had heard the taunts from their fellow school mates, and the bushy haired girl knew that if Harry failed, he would constantly have it thrown in his face in the future.

"Hermione, there isn't anything here! We've been looking for _days_ and there isn't anything we've found that I could possibly learn or make in time! The only useful thing I've learned is how to keep warm underwater, and that has nothing to do with _breathing_!" exclaimed Harry irritably. Sighing at the taken aback look on his friend's faces, Harry slumped on his stool and tried to get his ire under control.

"I'm sorry guys, I really am. I just… I just need to take a break. The library is about to close, so I'll catch up with you guys in the Common Room, alright?"

Ron looked at Harry with sympathy. After the jealousy issue before the First Task, their friendship had been more than a bit strained, but he could see now just how worried and agitated Harry was about this whole thing. Looking back, how he could have ever thought that Harry actually wanted to be in this competition was beyond him. "Harry's right. There's nothing here. Nothing. The closest thing was that Charm to dry up puddles, and we can't just dry up the lake. We'll see you in a bit, mate." Ron replied.

"Oh, alright," Hermione muttered, gathering up her bag before being practically shoved out the door by her red-headed friend- _before_ she could open her mouth with another lecture.

Harry watched his friends leave before looking down to stare at the ink stained table top. "Yeah. In a bit." He repeats quietly to himself before gathering his own bag and leaving the library; just in time as Madame Pince began dousing the lamps, leaving the library dark and abandoned of visitors as the stirred up dust floated gently down on the darkened stone floors.

-o-o-o-

Outside it was cold and dry and the sharp wind nipped painfully at Harry's cheeks as he made his way down the long, meandering path to the Lake. Slowly stumbling over near hidden rocks in the snow to the end of the pier where the First Years boats were docked, he sat down, dangling his sneaker clad feet just above the water.

What was he going to do? Already he was imagining various ways of skipping the Second Task. He could claim he was sick, but he already knew that it wouldn't work. Madame Pomfrey would know he was lying with just a wave of her wand. He could run away- but he didn't know where to go, and even if he did, he would never be able to live the shame down!

He could just show up empty handed, but he would literally be mocked out of the Wizarding World. He imagined trying to explain to the judges that he hadn't figured out the clue and he could see in his mind's eye Bagman's look of surprise and Malfoy's smug, pointy look of satisfaction as he failed.

Sighing, Harry was jolted out of his thoughts when he felt something brush against his foot. Glancing down, he blinked in surprise as the water gently rippled under him. But remembering that the Giant Squid was most active at this time of the year for some odd reason, Harry resumed his thinking, pointedly ignoring the next couple of brushes against his Muggle sneakers, each one just a tad harder than the next.

Suddenly, Harry's right foot was grabbed and given a hard yank. He yelped in surprise as he was almost dragged off the pier; thinking fast, he grabbed onto the cold, wooden boards and kicked his feet, trying to get his attacker to let go. Finally, after almost a lifetime, his left foot connected with something squishy but solid and he was released abruptly.

Dragging himself up Harry scrambled from the edge, trying to catch his breath and calm his racing heartbeat. The slight splashing of water beneath him calmed as he did.

Pulling his knees up to his chest, he examined his leg. His right pant leg had been slightly torn and his sneaker was gone, revealing his tired and dingy sock to the world. A slight tingling caught his attention and he absently rubbed his leg as he glanced at the water. There didn't seem to be anything around, but- there! The water rippled almost ten yards from the pier and Harry's breath caught in his throat. Slowly, he crawled to the edge of the pier, extending his head and shoulders over the water. The thing under the Lake's surface slowly swam closer, not high enough to be fully seen, but enough that Harry could make out that it was long and slim.

Harry knew for a fact that Mermaids lived in the lake, and that they had sung the clue inside his Golden Egg, but he had never heard of anyone being _attacked_ at Hogwarts by one, especially not a student. Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall would have surely told them that the Lake was off limits if it was dangerous- wouldn't they have?

The creature stopped only about three feet from the edge of the pier, and Harry couldn't help but hold his breath and stare as it slowly rose to the surface of the water to show him the entire length of its body. It was not what he expected at all. The only thing he could think to describe it as was that it was almost like a Muggle jellyfish- its head and long tentacles almost had him convinced that it was, until it raised a single long tentacle out of the water, stretching it toward him quickly as though it were trying to grab ahold of him again.

Scrambling backwards, a wide-eyed Harry barely managed to dodge it in time, missing it by mere inches. Bolting off the pier and well away from the Lake, he made sure that the creature couldn't reach him he bent over to catch his breath. His heart was pounding away like a scared rabbit's, and he tried to calm down before glancing around to make sure no one had seen him run off the pier like a scared little kid. The adrenaline beginning to subside, he began to shiver at the cold from his lack of a shoe and his ripped pants. Harry slowly limped back the castle, doing his very best to make sure that nobody saw him as he trudged his way through the corridors and up to Gryffindor Tower.

"Password?" the Fat Lady asked him rudely when he finally stood in front of her portrait. He had interrupted her _very important_ gossip session with her friend Lady Harrington, and they both looked extremely cross with him. "Treacle Tart." Harry responded, discreetly rolling his eyes when he was sure the two of them weren't looking. After all, he really did need to get into the Tower and the Fat Lady had a bad reputation of locking students out of the Tower for perceived wrongs.

Climbing through the entrance, he ignored the strange and somewhat hostile looks he received from his lovely, _friendly_ housemates and headed to the corner where Hermione and Ron looked to be locked in a heated discussion, Ron with a worried look on his face.

"What's going on?" Harry asked.

Ron startled before answering quietly, "Fred and George told us that Ginny was sent to McGonagall's office earlier, and no one has seen her since." Hermione huffed, and shot Harry a look that quite frankly read 'he's gone nutters'.

"Ron, I'm sure that if something serious happened to Ginny, you and your brothers would have been told _immediately_! Remember in second year, you guys were gathered and told about it within half of an hour. Ginny probably pranked somebody and got detention with Filch or Snape. There is nothing to worry about." Hermione said, obviously trying to be supportive. Giving a quick smile to his brainy friend, Harry clapped his best friend on the shoulder, "You know Hermione's always right, mate. She's probably just in detention."

Looking at Hermione, Ron really could see that she believed what she was telling him, and he quietly huffed and relaxed a bit before turning to Harry, "Do you think it's something like that?" he asked, before noticing Harry's missing shoe and torn pants. "What the blooming hell happened to you?"

Distracted, Harry glanced down before making a lightning fast decision; if he told his friends what happened, they would be worried much more than they already were… and then there was the small fact that he really didn't feel like telling them anything at all. "Oh, I tripped out by the Lake and lost my shoe. It's fine," he said with a forced laugh as he neatly dodged the suspicious looks on his friends faces," You know what; I'm going to head to bed. I'll need all the strength I can get tomorrow if I'm going to be swimming in forty degree water." Harry yawned a bit before leaving them in the Common Room, making his way up the flights of stairs until he reached the fourth year dorm.

Walking in, he gave a silent sigh of relief when he realized no one was around before grabbing his toiletry bag. Heading into the bathroom for a nice, hot shower before what would undoubtedly be a long, restless night, Harry couldn't help but wish that tomorrow would never come.

-o-o-o-

-The Day of the Second Task-

The last thing that Harry wanted to do the next morning was to actually crawl out of bed and face the day… or rather, face the Wizarding World.

Ron was still snoring away by the time breakfast rolled around, so it was up to poor Neville to coax the Triwizard Champion into his clothes and down the stairs towards the Great Hall. People whispered around them as they walked the corridors, and even Neville looked nervous for his friend. "It'll be alright, Harry. Er… but even if it isn't, at least _this_ time you probably won't be lunch for a dragon," said the chubby teen as he tried to boost Harry's spirits. Unfortunately, the halfhearted joke fell flat, and nothing was left but an awkward silence as they arrived at their table.

More than a bit bleary, Harry blinked in disbelief at the Durmstrang Champion who was sitting by himself at the Lion's table, but nonetheless sat across from the broad-shouldered young man and muttered a quiet hello in Krum's direction. The two hadn't interacted much, except for a few photo shoots before and after the First Task, so Harry was a little startled when Krum handed him a goblet of pumpkin juice while giving him a stoic, but friendly nod.

For just a second, Harry glanced down at the swirling orange colored juice, and wondered if there was any chance that it had been tampered with to give Krum an edge in the upcoming competition; the thought was perhaps more amusing than it should have been though, and without another thought he sipped politely at the warm liquid.

"What is so amusing, Potter?" Krum inquired with his accent heavy, his eyebrows drawn down into a slight vee as he frowned at the younger boy.

"Umm, I was just wondering if there was any chance you just poisoned me, but realized that even if you did, it wouldn't really make much of a difference." Harry's voice trailed off at the end of his sentence when he realized that both males were staring at him, one with incredulity and the other with amusement.

"And why wouldn't it matter? You did very well during the First Task- well enough for a fourteen year old at least," said Krum.

"Unless I can somehow figure out how to breathe underwater within the next two hours, I won't be in this stupid tournament anyway, so it really doesn't matter if you did or not. I'm the farthest thing from a threat that you can imagine," the young wizard heaved a sigh, his voice filled with resignation.

Harry sipped his pumpkin juice again before accepting the small bowl of porridge that Neville silently offered. The three sat in silence for several long minutes, each uneasily thinking of the Second Task.

More and more students from the schools began arriving in droves for breakfast, prattling excitedly about the upcoming competition; secretly Harry hated them for that because his life was _literally_ on the line. He could be seriously hurt or killed, and these idiotic sheep thought it was all 'a bit of fun'. Stabbing his spoon into the cooling goop that used to be his breakfast, he was unprepared for Krum kicking him under the table. Jumping in surprise, his spoon clattered to the wooden tabletop and people glanced his way.

Flushing, Harry peeked up at the Bulgarian who was scribbling furiously on a ripped piece of parchment. Finished, Krum pretended to stretch before catching Harry's eye and deliberately dropping the note under the table. The older boy stood and left, not bothering to say goodbye and Harry forced himself to wait, his fingers twitching as he did hid very best to look as non-suspicious as possible.

"What the bleeding hell is wrong with you," Ron exclaimed rudely as he plunked down unceremoniously next to his dark haired friend. "What did you do this time?"

"Ron!" Harry hissed, his eyes darting around to see if anyone had heard. Neville was studiously staring down at his own breakfast, though he could see that the chubby teen was trying not to smile, and many of the Gryffindor students were straining their necks to see what was going on. They were all well aware through past experiences that when Harry had an innocent look on his face, it was time to watch out for shenanigans.

Reaching out his sneakered foot- a different pair than the night before- he scraped it along the stone floor to drag the note under his bench.

"Alright there mate?" The freckled boy asked, giving his friend a curious look.

"Belt up a bit, everyone is staring!" Leaning down, Harry scooped up the parchment and stuffed in his robe pocket. "Look Ron, I forgot something in the dormitory, I'll be back in a bit. Tell Hermione if you see her before I do!"

Before his friend knew what was happening, Harry was gone, taking quick strides out of the Great Hall. Making sure no one was following him, especially Professor Snape, he ducked into the boy's loo and went into a stall, locking the door behind him. Pulling the now very wrinkled, abused, and dirty parchment out, he opened it slowly.

After all, it wasn't every day that you got a note from Viktor Krum _himself_.

_Potter, meet me on the third floor corridor, left hand side in the Spinning Room._

Well. That made absolutely no sense.

Harry didn't even know there was a spinning room, much less where it was. The corridor was huge (it had to be, to fit a Cerberus through it), and there were about fifty rooms on the left hand side alone. It would take him forever to find the one Krum was in, especially if another student was snooping around.

Wishing for his Invisibility Cloak, he quickly Incendio'd the parchment over the toilet bowl before leaving, making sure to flush and wash his hand since there was a nervous looking First Year washing his hands at one of the sinks. Sneaking through a busy Hogwarts probably wasn't the best idea Harry had ever had, especially since he should have been looking a solution to his breathing under water problem, but he wanted to know what the Durmstrang Champion wanted. Somehow, he knew that he was going to live to regret this.

Managing to skirt an irritable Mrs. Norris, Harry finally made his way up several stone staircases to the Third Floor. The only problem- he didn't know which door was which. He didn't want to open the wrong door and find someone he shouldn't, especially since he had heard rumors that the upper years used this floor as a snogging area.

He stood there indecisively for a long minute, before a hushed whisper had him whipping around. A peeved Quidditch star was glaring at him, waving him forward and into a small room. Trotting inside, Harry watched in silence as the Bulgarian waved his wand a few times, each one more complex than the last. Seemingly satisfied with his work, the older boy turned, "It's about time Potter, I was beginning to think you weren't coming. Now, what's this about you not figuring out how to breathe under water?"

Taken back by the harshness of the other's voice, Harry rocked back on his heels and ran a hand over his face. "Er, well… the clue basically said that the Mermaids under the Lake were going to take something we would sorely miss… and I figured that since they _lived_ in the water, the competition would _be_ under water." He stammered out, watching in bemusement as Krum scowled and seemingly hunched into himself.

"But you should already know all of this… I figure out the clue weeks ago and-" he was abruptly cut off by a growl and he wisely shut his mouth.

"Listen to me Potter, and listen well. I believe that you are in this competition for a reason and that you are being played messed with. I don't think you put your name in, and I don't think it's right that they are forcing a child to compete in a murderous game against _adults_. But there's nothing to be done about that at the moment, so take out your wand and follow my instructions."

Drawing his wand, Harry held it awkwardly as he watched Krum swish his wand and swirled it over his head in a circle before muttering an odd sounding incantation. Immediately, a bright purple spell shot from the tip of his wand and encircled the Quidditch star, before fading away after a few seconds.

In its place was a large clear bubble that completely enclosed the Wizard in a protective barrier. "This isn't the Jinx that I'm using for the Task, but this will allow you to breathe under the Lake; it's practically unbreakable, so there won't be a need to worry about nasty little creatures that live in the depths. You can breathe for about an hour before the oxygen runs out, so make sure you don't breathe too fast or heavy," Krum said, his voice strangely clear through the translucent bubble. A few flicks and swishes later, and the bubble had disappeared.

"So you're… helping me? Just like that, no strings attached? It's not that I'm not grateful, because really, I am… but… how is it that no one else can see the trouble I am in? I'm not supposed to be contending, and if my _competition_ can see that, why the bloody hell can't my Headmaster?!" Harry cried, overcome with relief that at least _one_ stranger believed him when he said that he had nothing to do with his name coming out of the Goblet of Fire.

Gritting his teeth, he closed his eyes and tried to rein in his temper. There was no use in getting angry, especially not right now, not when there was a way for him to actually survive the upcoming Task. Focusing on the other boy in the room, he raised his wand.

"Alright then, let's see if I can get this within an hour."

-o-o-o-

Authoress Notes:

Hey everyone, welcome to my new story (new as in thought up two years ago, but just now getting written). I hope you have liked it so far- enough to leave a review. I actually go on reviews to thicken plot lines, so please feel free to point out any potential problems/grammatical errors that I may have missed.

*Major sex scenes will be cut out of this version but the uncut version will be posted on Archive of Our Own at this link… /users/Sacre_Bleu/pseuds/Sacre_Bleu

*I do not use specific dialect in my stories, though I am well aware that JK Rowling made the Bulgarians/French people use it. I have seen good authors fail spectacularly at this, so I have decided to not attempt fate.

*Also, the bubble jinx that I referenced is the Ebublio Jinx- it is a jinx that entraps the targeted witch or wizard, or indeed any target, in a very large bubble that cannot be popped by physical force. I messed with it a bit to make it work for my purposes, but hey, that's what artistic license is right? Thank you for reading!


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